WAmerica's Four Gods: What We Say About God -- & What That Says About Us is a book published in 2010, written by Baylor University professors Paul Froese and Christopher Bader. The book was based on a 2005 survey of religious views, which suggested that Americans' conceptions of God fall into four different classes. Further, they report, American's views on political, moral and scientific issues are usually tied to their conception of God.
WThe Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy is a nonfiction book authored by American actor Rainn Wilson. It is a combination of a coming-of-age memoir discussing his career and celebrity status coupled with discussions on religion and more, with Wilson's involvement in the Baháʼí Faith since his early childhood playing a major role. Published by Dutton in November 2015, the book has received supportive coverage in a variety of publications such as the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly.
WBehold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion, a book by Alan Watts (1915–1973), was first published in 1947 by John Murray Publishers (London). This book is a reworking of Watts' Episcopal divinity degree thesis. Its importance lies partly in its exposition of Watts' earliest attempt to reconcile traditional Anglican theology with a mystical, Buddhist based approach, but also as a personal expression of the mystical experience.
WBreaking the Spell: My Life as a Rajneeshee and the Long Journey Back to Freedom is a non-fiction book by Catherine Jane Stork about her experiences as a Rajneeshee, a follower of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. It was published in April 2009 by Pan Macmillan. Stork was raised in Western Australia in a Catholic upbringing, and met her first husband while at university in Perth, Australia. After a psychotherapist introduced Stork to teachings of Rajneesh, she became involved in the movement and moved with her husband to an ashram in Poona, India. Stork later moved to the Rajneesh commune in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. She became involved in criminal activities while at Rajneeshpuram, and participated in an attempted murder against Rajneesh's doctor, and an assassination plot against the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Charles H. Turner. Stork served time in jail but later lived in exile in Germany for 16 years, after a German court had denied extradition to the United States. She returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges after learning of her son's terminal cancer condition. Stork discusses her process of reevaluating the effects her actions within the Rajneesh organization had on other people and on her family.
WChanging of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions is a non-fiction book written by Naomi Goldenberg.
WThe Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology is a non-fiction book about the organization and practices of the Church of Scientology, written by former Scientologist John Duignan with Nicola Tallant. The book was published in Ireland on October 7, 2008 by Merlin Publishing. Both of Duignan's parents died when he was very young and as a result he had difficult experiences as a teenager. He met an attractive female Scientologist on the streets of Germany, who convinced him to take a free personality test from Scientology. After the test, he was told he had a result of "Urgent Action Required", and he began to take Scientology courses. Duignan was recruited into Scientology's elite paramilitary organization called the "Sea Org", and spent a total of 22 years in the organization. After attending an event where actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise was given a medal and described by church leader David Miscavige as "the most dedicated Scientologist I know," Duignan began to examine the organization more closely and had doubts about remaining. He left the organization in 2006, after taking measures to avoid investigation by Scientology's intelligence agency the Office of Special Affairs.
WDemystifying Islam: Tackling the Tough Questions is a 2014 non-fiction book by Harris Zafar.
WThe Evolution of God is a 2009 book by Robert Wright, in which the author explores the history of the concept of God in the three Abrahamic religions through a variety of means, including archaeology, history, theology, and evolutionary psychology. The patterns which link Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the ways in which they have changed their concepts over time are explored as one of the central themes.
WFaith and Health: Psychological Perspectives is a book of scientific psychology on the relationship between religious faith and health. Edited by Thomas G. Plante and Allen C. Sherman, the book was published in the United States in 2001.
WFragments of Lappish Mythology is the detailed documented account of the Sami religious beliefs and mythology during the mid-19th century. It was written between 1838–1845 by Swedish minister Lars Levi Laestadius, but was not published until 1997 in Swedish, 2000 in Finnish, and 2002 in English. The book was originally written for the French-funded La Recherche Expedition of 1838–1840, but was lost and forgotten for many decades thereafter.
WFreud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation is a 1965 book about Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the French philosopher Paul Ricœur. In Freud and Philosophy, Ricœur interprets Freud's work in terms of hermeneutics, the theory of the rules that govern the interpretation of a particular text, and discusses phenomenology, a school of philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl. He addresses questions such as the nature of interpretation in psychoanalysis, the understanding of human nature to which it leads, and the relationship between Freud's interpretation of culture and other interpretations. The book was first published in France by Éditions du Seuil, and in the United States by Yale University Press.
WFrom the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan: Letters to the Homeland is a literary work by the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Blavatsky. She published it under the pen name Radda Bai in serial installments (letters) from 1879 to 1886 in Moscow in the periodicals Moskovskiya Vedomosti and Russkiy Vestnik, edited by Mikhail Katkov. The first part of these letters was published in a single volume in 1883 as an appendix to the journal Russkiy Vestnik. The second part of the letters was published in 1884–1886. The series obviously was never finished as it broke off rather suddenly.
WA History of the Devil is a book by Gerald Messadié published in 1996. The book was originally published in France in 1993 as Histoire Générale du Diable, and was translated into English by Marc Romano.
WIsis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology, published in 1877, is a book of esoteric philosophy and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's first major work and a key text in her Theosophical movement.
WJhatka Parkash ,also called Jhatka Parkash Granth, is a book written by Giani Niranjan Singh Saral, a leading preacher of the SGPC, concerning historical, philosophical, etymological and theological aspects of Jhatka and Meat eating in Sikh Religion.
WLatter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority is a 2011 book edited, with an introduction, by Philip Lindholm. It chronicles the stories of prominent LDS intellectuals who faced disciplinary action by the LDS Church. The book features contributions from members of the September Six, including Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Paul Toscano, Maxine Hanks, Lavina Fielding Anderson, D. Michael Quinn, as well as Janice Merrill Allred, Margaret Merrill Toscano, Thomas W. Murphy, and Donald Jessee. Lindholm's analysis combined with Diarmaid MacCulloch's foreword and the interviews themselves collectively discuss the nature and extent of intellectual freedom and disciplinary action in the LDS Church.
WThe Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science (1909) is a highly critical account of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and the early history of the Christian Science church in 19th-century New England. Largely ghostwritten by the novelist Willa Cather, it was published as a book in November 1909 in New York by Doubleday, Page & Company. The original byline was that of a journalist, Georgine Milmine, but it later emerged that Cather was the principal author.
WMan and Matter - Essays Scientific & Christian is a 1951 book written by a British chemist, museum curator and historian of science Frank Sherwood Taylor. The work presents a critical mind's account of the clash between religion and science. It provides insights into a unique perspective of a person, who has been received into the Catholic Church after forty years of struggling to find his way in a conflicted world of scientific and religious explanations.
WMeetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World is a 2017 book by historian Christopher de Hamel that explores the European medieval world through an in-depth study of 12 illuminated manuscripts. It won the Wolfson History Prize in 2017.
WSnapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change is a 1978 book which describes the authors' theory of religious conversion. They propose that "snapping" is a mental process through which a person is recruited by a cult or new religious movement, or leaves the group through deprogramming or exit counseling. Political ideological conversions are also included, with Patty Hearst given as an example.
WViolence and the Sacred is a 1972 book about the sacred by the French critic René Girard, in which the author explores the ritual role of sacrifice. The book received both positive reviews, which praised Girard's theory of the sacred, and more mixed assessments. Some commentators have seen the book as a work that expresses or points toward a Christian religious perspective. However, the book has also been seen as "atheistic" or hostile to religion. Violence and the Sacred became highly influential, in anthropology, literary criticism, and even Christology. It has been compared to the classicist Walter Burkert's Homo Necans (1972). Girard further developed its ideas in a subsequent book, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978).
WVoodoo: Truth and Fantasy is an illustrated monograph on Haitian Vodou, published in pocket format by Éditions Gallimard in 1993. Written by the Haitian sociologist of religion Laënnec Hurbon, this work is the 190th volume in the 'Découvertes Gallimard' collection.